The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

I'm listening to it on Audible. Ian Holm narrates.

I had to read this in my 19th century literature class in college. I loved it. It needs to be a mini series if it hasn't already. You can say the same of "The Moonstone". Did anyone but me see the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical from 2005 with Maria Freidman and Michael Ball? The standout song for me was "All for Laura".

I have both The Woman in White and The Moonstone on my Kindle, for a nominal fee. You may also enjoy Sheridan LeFanu.

I should read it. Enjoyed The Moonstone.

R2 I thought PBS did a miniseries a few years ago?

I'm a college Emglish professor and I teach The Woman in White quite often in my Victorian novel courses, OP. It has been taught more and more since after the 1980s, and is now one of the most frequently taught British novels from the Victorian century. The only downside to assigning it is its length, which takes up quite a lot of time on the syllabus (this is often a problem with Victorian novels for college courses, and is a reason why the longest Victorian novels often don't get taught as much, but why the shorter novels--Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Hard Times, Great Expectations, Barchester Towers, Hardy's novels--get taught more frequently). But even so, students like it so much that it's usually worth devoting extra time to it.

If you like The Woman in White, I would also recommend his second-most famous novel by Wilkie Collins also written in the 1860s, The Moonstone, which is also a gripping and absorbing read (I'm actually teaching it for a class this semester). I also think his other two novels of the 1860s and are also great reads: Armadale and No Name. After 1870 Wilkie Collins's novels tend to go downhill in quality, however.

*I meant to write "college English professor," not "Emglish."

Yes, we're guilty of typos too.

I saw the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. It sucked.

Listen to "All For Laura" from ALW's Woman in White - and then listen to "My Lord and Master) from The King and I.

'nuff said.

Isn't it fun how someone discovering an acknowledged "classic" novel in the genre simply MUST proclaim her ignorance by asking why it's not considered a classic?

And how that someone has to do it here?

R6 Thank you for the insightful comment. The novel's length and the time make a lot of sense.

R10 As for your pretentious comment, I said that The Woman in White is hardly ever ranked on the Top Books List and does not have the same name recognition as other classics.

R10 comments like this is why people are turned off by reading. It's gatekeeping.

To get back to the topic of the novel: one of the things I love about it is that it's such an incredible page-turner, even from the first chapters. I always recommend this to people who complain Victorian novels are boring--once you get started it's hard to stop. The narrative momentum keeps going and going!

And Marian Halcombe and Count Fosco are two of the best realized characters in Victorian fiction.

It was made into a miniseries as recently as 2018, with hottie Ben Hardy

Stanford was in a lot of women, but I never knew women were in him!

And it has been enough of a perennial classic for Warner Bros. to film it in 1948 with Miss Eleanor Parker.

It's one of the essential books that established the formula for Gothic mystery-romance.

It’s famous among lit-whores like me but the gatekeepers on what was considered “classic” always seem to have their issues with mystery stuff. They’ll only let a few be considered top tier and Turn Of The Screw and Fall of the House Of Usher seem to perennially push poor Wilkie off the post.

Everybody do yourself a favor and block R10 - I already had, and when I checked his comment it confirmed his MO as a negative, sanctimonious troll. (Which is why I'd blocked him back whenever.)

There's some gatekeeping for ya!

Too bad it never inspired any film or TV adaptations. It seems like it would have done.

[italic]There are at least 16 television and film adaptations of Wilkie Collins's "The Woman in White," including several silent films between 1912 and 1929, a 1948 Hollywood film, and several BBC series from 1966, 1982, 1997, and 2018, along with a German mini-series and a Soviet version.

Here is a breakdown of some of the notable adaptations:

Silent Films

1912: The Woman in White (US silent film)

1917: The Woman in White (US silent film)

1917: Tangled Lives (US silent film, based on the novel)

1921: The Woman in White (Austrian silent film)

1929: The Woman in White (British silent film)

Sound Films

1940: Crimes at the Dark House (US film, loosely based on the novel)

1948: The Woman in White (US Hollywood film)

1949: Woman in White (Swedish film)

1965: A Woman in White (French-Italian film)

Television Series

1966: The Woman in White (British BBC series)

1971: The Woman in White (German TV miniseries)

1982: The Woman in White (British BBC series)

1997: The Woman in White (British series)

2018: The Woman in White (British BBC series)[/italic]

OP, you're being a bit too predictable now. It is pretentious to lie to cover your typical approach to discovery. It's not a big deal. But enjoying literature while showing yourself to be a Philistine may be. You were rather direct and now you expect us to be mind readers with your posts to grant you cover:

[quote]Why is this book not considered a classic or...

I'm glad R18 is being so self-protective.

Because it's her show, obviously.

Thank you for the recommendation of The Moonstone. I love this book - and it is a page turner. I love how continually resourceful Marian is. Speaking of such, I recommend the 2018 BBC adaptation referenced above. It includes DL's (sort of) favorite actress Jessie Buckley as Marian and she portrays her as the plain-faced (kind of butch) willing to get in your face kind of heroine that she is in the book, rather than the glammed up Marian in the 1948 movie (which includes the great Sydney Greenstreet)!

Was this a sequel to "The Lady in Red"?

The Rabbit in Red, la da da dee da da, The Rabbit in Red...

R12, your claim is irrational. A simple "it's already a classic" ties to people exhibiting hubris about reading an excellent book.

One's happy discovery is not the time to put other readers' down out of misapprehensions.

But in a lapping time, lap away, by all means.

Wilkie Collins wrote many other good novels besides The Woman In White and The Moonstone and was ahead of his times in some ways (he wrote about women's rights and vivisection for example). I love Dickens' novels too but if I had to choose one it would be Collins.

Frederick Fairlie is the prototype of every DataLounger.

Drama

The Victorian motif of the beautifull, helpless young woman and her smart heroic girlfriend is in full effect (see Bleak House, Dracula.)

You may want to check out all of Mary Elizabeth Braddon's novels. The most famous is "Lady Audley's Secret," but my personal favorite is "Henry Dunbar: Portrait Of An Outcast." She was a contemporary of Wilkie Collins. Another couple of highly recommended ones by her are "Birds Of Prey" and its sequel, "Charlotte's Inheritance."

Don't listen to the naysayers, OP. I appreciate the recommendation.

Op you aren’t allowed to read that book after Labor Day. It’s disgraceful.

I like Mary Elizabeth Braddon too. My favorite one of her novels is The Doctor's Wife.

R33 I agree, that one is very good. I also loved The Phantom Fortune! I am kind of surprised more of her novels haven't been made into films over the years.

R32 I'm a divorced woman, please help me.